Elizabeth’s Main Street preserves a long stretch of the community’s commercial and residential past, with buildings that have remained part of local life for well over a century. On the east side from the north end stood the I.O.O.F. Hall, built in 1896; the Lewis Store and Confectionery, built at an unknown date and moved there in 1901; the Elizabeth Hotel, built before 1880; and the First National Bank of Elizabeth at the south end of the block. Across Broadway stood the Blumer Block, built before 1900 by a Swiss immigrant and used by a variety of enterprises over the years, as well as the 1897 House, which served as both a business house and a private residence. On the south side of Elm Street were the Denver and New Orleans Railroad section foreman’s house, the Robert Chirnside House as a private residence, and the Ahl and Weiss Blacksmith Shop, originally a busy community hall and possibly Elizabeth’s first town hall building. On the west side, the original buildings were replaced over time, but the Cort-Hames General Store building survived after being moved across Broadway to the south in the 1970s and became the Elizabeth Public Library. Also there were the Carson Building, built in 1890, and at the south end of the block a former saloon and boarding house for railroad workers built in 1882 that may be the oldest house in Elizabeth.